Elijah Szasz

Elijah Szasz was born in San Francisco and raised in Pacifica, CA. He currently lives in Santa Monica with his wife and two children. His exceptionally weird background includes nutrition, fitness, investment banking, robotics and user experience design. He is a serial entrepreneur whose mission is to leverage technology for the reduction of human suffering. His current roles are CEO, advisor and writer.

User Experience Design AdvisorData Not Drugs is the umbrella for projects including a new app that will help athletes optimize the timing of all facets of performance such as sleep, nutrition, and training.

Digital Advisor, Contributor34º North is a gym and resource center in Santa Monica, CA. Inspired by a cultural movement that puts the body back at the center of attention where it belongs, they honor movement, exuberance, play, health and broad-based physicality.

Founder The 21 Days mobile application is under development. This will let users choose and be guided through challenges to create positive new behaviors.

The Past

Training, Nutrition & Nutraceuticals

In high school I started working at the local natural food store because it was better than a paper route. After about a year there, I had learned quite a bit about supplements and nutrition. I was working with the food and supplement distributors, organic farmers and attending trade events. As a bullied, overly skinny kid, the tubs of protein powder emblazoned with superhero-like physiques were especially interesting to me. I started sucking down weight gainer and joined the local gym. After a year of training, I gained 50 lbs of muscle. I was hooked. Within four years I had gone from 125 lbs to over 200 lbs. I studied everything I could get my hands on and got certified to be a trainer . For five years in San Francisco, I trained clients, crafted diets and sold sports supplements. Almost every day I use things I learned from this period of time. The habits I created over 20 years ago have kept me healthy and the discipline has spilled into all other areas of my life.

Investment Banking

After suffering a severe back injury, I decided that a career which was less dependent on my physical strength and provided medical insurance was in order. I have no idea how a personal trainer got a job at Bear Stearns in San Franicsco's financial district. I worked with a group of brokers who sponsored me while I studied for my license. The day-to-day of working under a broker consisted primarily of cold calling- about 800 dials a day. As I approached the time to test for my license, I came to the conclusion that this business either attracted completely insane people, or it created them. I didn't like either scenario too much but at least I now had some solid boiler room sales experience.

Industrial Automation

After ruling out investment banking, a friend informed me of an opening in his office for an Inside Application Engineer. He explained that this position had a future in technical sales and he’d give me all the material to prep for the interviews. Through sheer tenacity, I secured the position at the Japanese factory automation company and embarked on a very steep learning curve. Before long, I had a growing sales territory in Silicon Valley and was picked up by a robotics company. Over the course of 11 years, I worked on projects that ranged from ice cream factories to aerospace tech. I managed dozens of distributors and sales managers and territories over 25 states across. I became well versed in B2B sales, managing trade events, managing sales teams and working with large corporate entities.

Full Time Parenting

Shortly after an automation company I was employed with was acquired, I decided to relocate from Silicon Valley to Southern California. My daughter was 18 months old at the time and I took the opportunity to take care of her full time that year. It was the best decision I ever made. There was nothing “stay-at-home” about that year. We filled our days with story time at the local libraries, music classes, tumbling classes, mommy and me yoga, parenting classes, aquariums and lots of afternoons at the park or beach. I started a weekly dads-with-little girls group that grew to a respectable size.

SPARK6At this creative agency, I served as founder and CEO. I also did content strategy, business planning, user experience design and content creation. SPARK6 serves clients such as eBay, AT&T, CISCO, PayPal and Stryker. From wireframes and design to front end and CMS development, our teams discounted for social innovation and non-profit work.

Harcos Labs

One of my robotics colleagues and I decided to take a virtual item only found in video games, and make it into a real consumer product. The Manapotion energy shot was originally only sold on our web store and marketed through a series of viral videos we created. We raised a Series A and ended up on over 3,000 shelves with large retailers like Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters, Fry’s Electronics, FYE and ThinkGeek. Harcos Labs became masters of earned media and landed a featured YouTube video, Inside Edition, BoingBoing TV, Engadget, Gizmodo, Fox News, AOL News, IGN, G4TV, Wired, Kotaku, Perez Hilton and The Hollywood Reporter. After four years, we had a dozen products including a synthetic blood beverage and green zombie jerky and sold the company in 2011.

School of Hard Knocks

After high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Since both of my parents were artists, I went to community college and enrolled in everything from sketching and painting to light theory and color. Something told me that I needed to find my own path, so I switched gears and took as many classes as I could on writing. That seemed a bit narrow as well, so I just started taking random classes that ranged from psychology in advertising to human sexuality. I did this for five years. Somewhere in the middle, I decided I had no interest in transferring to a four year school and didn’t even register for many of the classes that I regularly attended. Education is still a part of my every day life. For me, the path of practical application and self-teaching has worked out better than a traditional classroom setting. I read nonstop and attend speaking events whenever I can. Incorporating a variety of teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, Tony Hsieh and Tim Ferris ensure that my continued education reaches beyond my career goals.